I know this is late, but you got some parts wrong my dude: The skeleton is indeed "the Empty Man", or rather, the previous one / _an_ "Empty Man". What people don't seem to understand here, is that "the Empty Man" is actually not the evil, supernatural antagonist (as such). "The Empty Man" is but the name given to a physical holder / a vessel meant for an Outer God, specifically Nyarlathotep (yes, if you listen closely, you can hear the cult members chant his name during the bonfire scene). When Paul saw / touched the vessel (the skeleton), he got possessed, by Nyarlathotep. But since Paul is only a human-being, he can't correctly contain an Outer God, which results in him becoming comatose. Still, Nyarlathotep _can_ manipulate people near / around him and "feed" upon the chaos and terror it creates. A cult of Nyarlathotep (disguised as the Pontifex Institute), after many years, finally conjures a true vessel, a "Tulpa" named James (the plot twist). James is the result of a collective mind; a being (again, "Tulpa") created from thought and meditation. Basically, James is the perfect "Empty Man" for Nyarlathotep, from which he can take over our plain of existence. Why? We don't know. And that's where the movie ends 👍
I know this is late, but thanks man! That summarization makes more sense than any explanation video I watched. Keep it up! But one thing: The skeleton to me IS Nyalarthotep, at least his last physical form that died but still inherited the outer god, calling for a new vessel which he found in Paul.
hey just a quick question, if that skeleton is just a holder or vessel, why is it so different looking than others? surely it's not a human skeleton. could it be some sort of monster?
If anyone is interested David Prior was on a podcast called The Secret Handshake. He goes into detail all the hell he went through making and trying to get this movie out. From what I remember Warner gave him a bunch of money. Then did nothing with trying to let people know about it. It bombed in theaters because Warner bros basically dumped it into theaters after releasing a subpar trailer a week before its release. Chris stuckmann does a review on it as well where he goes into a bit of detail on it as well. Glad to see this movie is starting to get a following after it’s streaming release
Warner Brothers in general has a bad habit of doing this, it's for this very reason that a lot of their animated films like The Iron Giant and Cats Don't Dance bombed as well initially too. So it doesn't surprise me that they have a knack of doing it to their smaller Live Action works as well.
@@BohemianDeer yeah I’ve heard. It’s a crappy way to do things. I wasn’t too shocked either. Just sucks when a good or really good movie gets labeled bad or goes under the radar because of this type of thing. It’s good to see this movie getting the following or cult following it deserves
@@ryanpolk3141 Oh yeah, for me I'm not usually a fan of horror films at all, it's a genre I tend to overlook unless it catches my interest. But I am a fan of horror literature including Eldritch horror and I can tell this film is gonna wind up a favourite of mine in the genre. This one's definitely getting another fan.
The "monster" isn't the Empty Man, the Emptyman is the Tulpa or human vessel of the "In-between one" which needs this Emptyman to inhabit to transmit the messages from the Noosphere to the cult. So the Grim-Reaper looking monster is the In-Between-One.
Yep.....they explained all that in the movie. What I want to know is where did the oversized funky skeleton come from? Is he a Nephilim or something? Clearly not a human
Correct. I've read so many reviews and seen lots of videos on this movie, and everyone claims the entity or monster is the Empty Man. It isn't. The cult doesn't worship the Empty Man. The Empty Man isn't an "entity" (until James was created), it's essentially the head of their cult, their prophet. The actual entity is The Other, also called the Between One.
@@joeyferguson840 My theory after I watched the movie is that it's Nyarlathotep's former physical form at one point in time, and in some way he lost his physical form so he turned to guys like Paul and James as new vessels for him. Outer Gods, like Nyarlathotep, have often affected humans even if they didn't always have physical forms to do it (like when Yog-Sothoth was Wilbur Whateley's and The Dunwhich Horror' baby daddy).
I agree with this absolutely. But what confuses me is the urban legend where people have to think about the empty man and blow into the bottle. It doesn't really make sense to me that the In Between One is the actual entity that attacks the victims on the third day when the victim is thinking about The Empty Man. I guess you could argue that thinking about The Empty Man creates a "portal" where the In Between One can get to you corporeally though.. I haven't seen this point being explored elsewhere.
What is more, The Empty Man clearly explores Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror and the Cthulhu Mythos. The Empty Man is Nyarlathotep. The Pontifex Society speaks of the Empty Man being a messenger who brings chaos and others like him with him. This is exactly the description of Nyarlathotep. One of his many "masks" - the Bloody Tongue - makes an explicit appearance when James is possessed by the Empty Man.
Compartmentalization of the psyche, is the term for dissociative disorder. It’s used in trauma based mind control… The word tulpa is Tibetan. It is quite deep within internal alchemical techniques of self mastery. Requiring many years of rigorous training… The stories of which, always end up running a muck, eventually.
The scene where the main guy is searching for one of the missing girls in her home, a movie is playing and you can hear a character say, paraphrasing: "he is coming, Atum". If you look up the God atum, you'll find he's the first Egyptian God, that came from the primordial universe.....arguably he came from nothingness.
@@SouvenTudu1 just stumbled upon it myself while watching the movie. Then I googled "the god atom" but noticed there was a spelling suggestion for the god atum.
Ken Barthelmey, the Creature Designer for the movie, said in his artstation page that the director asked him for something inspired both by Beksinski and Giger
The creature was the outer god Nyarlathotep, they changed his name at the camp fire and the end and reality itself shattered at his name, for he can travel between the spheres and is the messenger of Azathoth!
1. James' surname, Lasombra, actually means "the shadow" in Spanish. 2. Pontifex means "bridge maker". 3. One of the folders in Camp Elsewhere is named "Quail/A" (Amanda Quail) which may also pertain to the concept of qualia - a term use to describe the nature or content of our subjective experiences.
Yeah many have said this movie was extremely mismarketed and was thrown out to the wolves. Now people are calling it one of the greatest horror films in this decade
@@Macabre124 we're not exactly deep into this decade to be saying that just yet, but I agree that it's going to be well regarded as a creepy and well-made film and that it's one of the best horror films made in the last few years.
@@Tyler_W i agree with you. I'm a movie head. I've watched thousands of movies. I'm unemployed for years and not married plus i have no life for nearly my entire life so I've watcjed a lot of movies including from othercountries and this film definitely is a masterclass and visceral in filmography
I wouldn't say the plot twist was unique given that its taken straight from lovecraft - the detective investigating a cult who ends up being the one to bring the terrifying force into the world
Huh? But he doesn't bring it into the world....he wasn't a real human to begin with.....so nope not some Loveceaft story 🙄 so what story exactly is this copying? I bet you've read 2 or less of his stories but yet are acting like you're some expert. 😂🙄🤮
You got things backwards. People who are positive are positive because life and circumstances give them a reason to be positive, and vice versa. No one chooses to be negative for no reason. Their negativity REFLECTS their reality, it doesn't create it. Think about it. New Agers often tend to have things backwards. Negative thoughts REFLECT a negative reality. Thinking positive doesn't do anything if your circumstances don't reflect it. Think about it. This is obvious. Case in point: If you fear that you are about to get fired at your job, it's not because you are thinking negative and causing your boss to fire you. No. It's because you aren't a good fit for your employer or company and your managers are already thinking of firing you, or they have to lay off people and you are on the list, so you sense it in the ether telepathically and you sense it coming like a premonition. Hence your thoughts REFLECT the reality that's coming, like a premonition, it does NOT create it out of thin air. We've all experienced this or something similar before. We are not all powerful. That's an obvious delusion.
Great job on your CHANNEL and the video! You always do a wonderful job in narrating your topic as well! KEEP UP YOUR GREAT WORK and to everyone.... HAVE A GOOD DAY-👍👍👍
This film restored my faith in big budget film making. It almost seems like a big mistake - no one puts this much $$$ into a film thats actually good, scary and intelligent!
Both Lovecraft-based/inspired. That is why. Annihilation is another incredible cosmic horror movie to check out. It’s very similar to the Lovecraft work “The Color Out of Space” and it has way higher quality/production value than both Empty Man and Mouth of Madness.
just watch this movie because my friend recommend it; I think 'Empty Man' is not the skeletal figure or the shadow that we see haunting the characters. The skeletal figure is an Ancient Being, A spirit, A Mind invading Conscience that NEED an 'EMPTY MAN' as a VESSEL to live on. ( if its empty, its easy to get inside it, get it? EMPTY-MAn for an ancient spirit to possessed) Remember they say; ' It's easier to penetrate someone who knows Pain, regret, or tragedy. " we know that GREG in the first act has something BAD going on and tried to kill himself many times before. PAUL also has something in common, make him an easy target for the EXPERIMENT. WHich bring us to the video in the cabin. the experiment and all the ritual of blowing bottle they did. well I think, they did calling The ancient being / TULPA, first they believe that TULPA is coming to them through vision or dream, with time, concentration, and repetition it could all be real. BUT NOT ALL THE VESSELS ARE COMPATIBLE!! - That's why the man in the video went all Exorcist MAd - that's why some people who tried summoning the TULPA died... They just can't handle the mind invader and went crazy and eventually kill themselves. (The writing on the bridge, 'the empty man made me do it' is actually referring to GREG that was still the Empty Man when the teenagers died, so as GREG/ The Empty Man sees them unfit, he simply erase them.) ANd So we come to the last arc, where we got a question; is Paul real? is he fabricated? does AMANDA even real!? this has a lot of possibility: - We showed that The Pontifex has folders full of Paul's Bio. (could be planted, or could be a proof that Paul is really being experimented) - Amanda's mom didn't know Paul, AManda didn't appear in the last scene, his house is EMPTY, a naked picture of him in the basement (all solid proofs for me that Paul's past was fabricated!) - As paul become overwhelmed by all these information, the TULPA used this chance to possessed Paul and finally got a new and healthy body for himself. some great point; Paul said he's from san fransisco many times, but as he said it over and over again, It loses its meaning and got me thinking 'so what!?', just like the movie said that if you say something too much, it'll become gibberish and loses its meaning.
dude I threw this away so many times. I hate horror films because they are all the same. But when i accidentally watched this by chance, my goodness, i'm already watching it 3 times and writing notes from it
I think I've finally been convinced. I left horror films a long time ago. I do enjoy a good psychological thriller and I do wonder if the people who promote this haven't mislabeled it to a point?
Do you people not realize the spirit is the outer god Nyarlathotep, they chanted his name around the fire and the space time continuum stopped yet it didn't stop it speed up but also slowed down, for the tulpa knew reality was shattered at this point but wasent sure , Nyarlathotep has take Vessels in over 1000 forms
I’ve actually read a lot of personal accounts of people who get into law of attraction shit and this movie is barely an exaggeration. Stay clear if you value your sanity and soul.
Parsons? This wouldn't be a reference to The Babylon Working with Jack Parsons, pre Scientology L.Ron Hubbard and Parsons wife? Groovier times man, groovier times....
I didn't really care for this movie tbh. And the plot twist wasn't worth sitting through the run time. There were scenes that I liked, but overall this movie is a nah from me.
This is one of the most incoherently reaching video essays I've ever listened to. No thoughts are developed to completion or backed up by anything. Also, Nietchze coined the term nihilism but was not a nihilist nor was he a proponent or advocate of nihilism. He saw nihilism as one of the two conclusions our society will arrive at after realizing God is dead. The other of the two was übermansch which is what he did advocate.
Positivity and negativity are just moral man made illusions, thinking happy doesn't make your life better, its your actions that change outcomes not thoughts
I’m still confused as to what the skeleton thing with the giant hands embedded into the wall was ?!? How did it get there? Why didn’t it come back into reality since an entire cult was manifesting its existence?!! I am confused
Theory: The skeleton was the previous vessel before Paul and James. After being possessed by the In-between-one, that person's body eventually died and decayed while meditating in the mountains of Bhutan. During their time as a "transmitter" (having their body inhabited by a cosmic deity), the person's bones were mutated into an otherworldly monster that imbedded itself in the cave walls. The bones grew outwards in every direction like tendrils of a lovecraftian monster, searching for anguished minds to corrupt and control. The messages were eventually received when Paul heard the whistling sound while hiking in the mountains.
I would say that David Prior is far more critical of these philosophies, postmodernism, nihilism, social constructivism, Buddhism and so on. I think the film is more a critique of the philosophical ideas than an embrace of them. I mean, there’s definitely something very evil and scary about The Empty Man and the cult that worships him.
my residual bewilderment might be an easy answer but lies in this simple question: what is the PURPOSE of the cult? though the answer seems to be purely psychological and an act of "learning," then what is the purpose of the entity "killing" everyone it interacts with, except for the tulpa?
I saw it and it was a pretty good storyline but I don't think the characters were strong enough to carry it all. I don't think it was the actors , I think it was on the writer to write stronger characters that this plot needs.
I thought that James being the 14th manifestation might be an attempt, from the Pontifex, to mirror tibetan Buddhism. The actual Dalaï Lama being the 14th.
Couple serious errors, inserting postmodernism into your speech at 16:00 is biased and misleading. Everything is not just a social construct. There are static and unmovable elements from everything like a toaster down to subatomic particles. There are biological facts that are not up for debate. The reason this movie is so scary is because the real villain is not the comatose Empty Man, or the spirit of the evil being, it is the humans that spend their time and money helping him, lying to innocent people, spreading the chaos, and serving the thing dwelling in the body of the person. Ultimately, the message is that there is no limit to what some type of people will do to be granted real power. It has nothing to do with 'am I a construct? ' Also you forgot to mention that the whole goal of enlightenment in Buddhism is to disconnect completely from the feelings and desires of mortality. This means that it's possible that Buddhism itself might have been started by people who were in contact with the corpse that they found in the crevasse. This means that the being may be spreading an ancient form of enlightenment within the cult.
Buddhism was established by Siddhartha Gautama in India. It's got nothing to do with seeing skeletons in some cave in Bhutan. Gautama was meditating and developed the philosophy. The Cult in the movie is not interested in power. They were nihilists, they didn't believe in reality, and by extension they didn't believe in power, or no power. Neither exists. It's all one and the same, nothing exists, nothing matters, nothing has value, there is no meaning in life or death, existence or nonexistence, in the order of the cosmos, nothing apart from the Other in the Noosphere, and they believe in this fanatically. The message, therefore, is that there is no limit to what fanatics will do to see their perspective of the world proven right.
The principle problem I can see with this movie is that the fact that the main character's last name is Lasombra kind of gives away the reveal, and then it's just two hours of waiting for them to get there.
I'm a native spanish speaker and in retrospect it's very obvious, but I didn't made the connection even though from the start I thought "man, what a funny last name". Maybe I'm just too much of a dumbass, but it was nice not knowing haha
Lasombra means shadow, how does that give away the twist before you actually know it? In hindsight it makes sense but I can't see anyone figuring anything out on that alone. Could even just be a thematic detail
If you didn't hear the cultists chanting Nyarlathotep at the fire in the movie , this is the mighty outer god, traveler between many spheres of realities and messenger of the great dream of Azathoth, for if he shall awaken all will cease to be, the chaos of his infinite dark abysmal gate is vast and endless, the Daemon Sultan is all that is real and made all that is not real by just a thought
Spoilers.... I would love a sequel in which it explores if there is a struggle within Lasombra fake identity against The Empty Man. It could explore the imperfect tulpa, as it was made my humans afterall, with the fake personality remerging and maybe The Empty Man struggling with another entity looking for a viable host.
*So what’s the word on this film? It’s been out for a few years now, so I am curious, is it a good horror film? The whole summoning of a spirit by blowing into a bottle seems ridiculous to me. They could have come up with a better way to summon this thing. On top of that I still think there is the possibility of it being a good film. So what’s everyone’s review on this film? Give me a rating out of 10 please and a BRIEF explanation as to why your rating is correct.*
8/10 for me, the trailer is highly misleading. It's a high concept cosmic horror with some top shelf cinematography and sound design to create an atmosphere of existential dread.
1 out of 10 Didn't like it at all. You will NOT see any horror in this movie. It is nonsense with a HUGE plothole. Weak story, segmented, lingering from one direction to another. You can catch "the big twist" in the middle of the movie. The only thing I don't "get" about this movie is why so many people like it.
look at the comment replies. This is why its clear we are all different. To each their own. One guy rates it 8 out of 10 while the other crapped on it. Everyone different.
@@id104335409 there was plenty of horror, the fuck movie did you watch? The camp fire? The entity in his house? The prologue? If you can't at least admit the prologue is good then you have shit taste
Idk if I'd draw that comparison apart from its psychological elements that play with your head. I'd say that while it's clearly more grounded, the aesthetic in particular kinda reminded me of A Cure for Wellness.
@@Macabre124 And it is not a passive German Doppelganger who is just a harbinger to a person who sses it than he/she will die soon. Tulpa is an active s.o.b.
@@Macabre124 of course. I was trying to get other people in my circle to watch it because it's concept was so different. No one else I know really enjoys horror movies unfortunately.
It’s kinda like Candyman it’s kinda weird some people actually attamept to manifest a Tulpa I read a creepy past about it before it’s overall pretty benevolent but it’s still fuckin weird
In the world of HP Lovecraft and this movie definitely being about the cult worshipping Nyarlathotep, the mighty outer god and messenger of the sleeping creator Azathoth, all realities are a dream in the mind of Azathoth
Repetition, like how religious extremists constantly preach about heaven and hell to the point where in their head its a reality? Even if no of it is true, instresting
That's exactly why so many people actually love the movie. We like psychological thrillers that don't spoon feed us and draw out the suspense, to the breaking point and then beyond, and leave us not knowing for sure where we stand. The latter part esp. invites future watches. Too many movies are a droll, spoon fed pile of fluff, that you can barely see once.
The human's mind is a complex chains of process, the more you think about things around the world, the more you curious for them, more thoughts more thrill more... excitement
I know this is late, but you got some parts wrong my dude:
The skeleton is indeed "the Empty Man", or rather, the previous one / _an_ "Empty Man".
What people don't seem to understand here, is that "the Empty Man" is actually not the evil, supernatural antagonist (as such). "The Empty Man" is but the name given to a physical holder / a vessel meant for an Outer God, specifically Nyarlathotep (yes, if you listen closely, you can hear the cult members chant his name during the bonfire scene).
When Paul saw / touched the vessel (the skeleton), he got possessed, by Nyarlathotep. But since Paul is only a human-being, he can't correctly contain an Outer God, which results in him becoming comatose. Still, Nyarlathotep _can_ manipulate people near / around him and "feed" upon the chaos and terror it creates.
A cult of Nyarlathotep (disguised as the Pontifex Institute), after many years, finally conjures a true vessel, a "Tulpa" named James (the plot twist). James is the result of a collective mind; a being (again, "Tulpa") created from thought and meditation.
Basically, James is the perfect "Empty Man" for Nyarlathotep, from which he can take over our plain of existence. Why? We don't know. And that's where the movie ends 👍
I know this is late, but thanks man! That summarization makes more sense than any explanation video I watched. Keep it up! But one thing: The skeleton to me IS Nyalarthotep, at least his last physical form that died but still inherited the outer god, calling for a new vessel which he found in Paul.
hey just a quick question, if that skeleton is just a holder or vessel, why is it so different looking than others? surely it's not a human skeleton. could it be some sort of monster?
@@fruits050 Mutated, that's my theory.
What I don't understand is why and who killed all the kids
@@fruits050because that tulpa or thoughtform came out like that duh 🙄
If anyone is interested David Prior was on a podcast called The Secret Handshake. He goes into detail all the hell he went through making and trying to get this movie out. From what I remember Warner gave him a bunch of money. Then did nothing with trying to let people know about it. It bombed in theaters because Warner bros basically dumped it into theaters after releasing a subpar trailer a week before its release. Chris stuckmann does a review on it as well where he goes into a bit of detail on it as well. Glad to see this movie is starting to get a following after it’s streaming release
Warner Brothers in general has a bad habit of doing this, it's for this very reason that a lot of their animated films like The Iron Giant and Cats Don't Dance bombed as well initially too. So it doesn't surprise me that they have a knack of doing it to their smaller Live Action works as well.
@@BohemianDeer yeah I’ve heard. It’s a crappy way to do things. I wasn’t too shocked either. Just sucks when a good or really good movie gets labeled bad or goes under the radar because of this type of thing. It’s good to see this movie getting the following or cult following it deserves
@@ryanpolk3141 Oh yeah, for me I'm not usually a fan of horror films at all, it's a genre I tend to overlook unless it catches my interest. But I am a fan of horror literature including Eldritch horror and I can tell this film is gonna wind up a favourite of mine in the genre. This one's definitely getting another fan.
I consider this a future cult classic
@@BohemianDeer it was Fox, not Warner
The "monster" isn't the Empty Man, the Emptyman is the Tulpa or human vessel of the "In-between one" which needs this Emptyman to inhabit to transmit the messages from the Noosphere to the cult. So the Grim-Reaper looking monster is the In-Between-One.
NYARLATHOTEP THE TRAVELER BETWEEN THE SPHERES , THE BLACK PHAROH, THE CRAWLING CHAOS , THE BEYOND ONE, THE PROPHET AND MESSANGER OF AZATHOTH!!!
Yep.....they explained all that in the movie. What I want to know is where did the oversized funky skeleton come from? Is he a Nephilim or something? Clearly not a human
Correct. I've read so many reviews and seen lots of videos on this movie, and everyone claims the entity or monster is the Empty Man. It isn't. The cult doesn't worship the Empty Man. The Empty Man isn't an "entity" (until James was created), it's essentially the head of their cult, their prophet. The actual entity is The Other, also called the Between One.
@@joeyferguson840
My theory after I watched the movie is that it's Nyarlathotep's former physical form at one point in time, and in some way he lost his physical form so he turned to guys like Paul and James as new vessels for him. Outer Gods, like Nyarlathotep, have often affected humans even if they didn't always have physical forms to do it (like when Yog-Sothoth was Wilbur Whateley's and The Dunwhich Horror' baby daddy).
I agree with this absolutely. But what confuses me is the urban legend where people have to think about the empty man and blow into the bottle. It doesn't really make sense to me that the In Between One is the actual entity that attacks the victims on the third day when the victim is thinking about The Empty Man. I guess you could argue that thinking about The Empty Man creates a "portal" where the In Between One can get to you corporeally though.. I haven't seen this point being explored elsewhere.
What is more, The Empty Man clearly explores Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror and the Cthulhu Mythos. The Empty Man is Nyarlathotep. The Pontifex Society speaks of the Empty Man being a messenger who brings chaos and others like him with him. This is exactly the description of Nyarlathotep. One of his many "masks" - the Bloody Tongue - makes an explicit appearance when James is possessed by the Empty Man.
Thank you! Not a lot of people seem to make the connection with Nyarlathotep.
Thanks for this. I googled Nyarlathotep and the image is exactly what we see in the movie. As you say, the movie explicitly shows this. Thank you!
Compartmentalization of the psyche, is the term for dissociative disorder.
It’s used in trauma based mind control…
The word tulpa is Tibetan. It is quite deep within internal alchemical techniques of self mastery. Requiring many years of rigorous training…
The stories of which, always end up running a muck, eventually.
The part that creeps me out was the skeleton. The size of its hands were terrifying and the forest cult scene made me laugh, in a good way.
yeah that skeleton scene creeped me out big time. Its make you think what existed centuries ago
His reaction when the cult noticed him before he started booking it for the car was really funny.
@@Tyler_W yeah lol... He had some subtle funny moments in the movie
check out ZdZislaw Beksinki and his artwork with the skeleton playing the trumpet.
Yea, no 😂
The scene where the main guy is searching for one of the missing girls in her home, a movie is playing and you can hear a character say, paraphrasing: "he is coming, Atum". If you look up the God atum, you'll find he's the first Egyptian God, that came from the primordial universe.....arguably he came from nothingness.
And it definitely fits for Nyarlathotep, since one of his many manifestations is an Egyptian pharaoh.
Wow. Did you find out
or did you come across the info?
@@SouvenTudu1 just stumbled upon it myself while watching the movie. Then I googled "the god atom" but noticed there was a spelling suggestion for the god atum.
@@vinnyholiday9739
So you found out
This movie is amazing I absolutely love cosmic horror movies they are rare because it's hard to get right for movies and TEM did it absolutely well
Empty man vs empty hand DC comics
perfectly written. Cosmis horror movies or lovecraftian movies are rarely good because its hard to get the "feel" right but this one nailed it
The figure in the film bears an uncanny resemblance to a Zdzislaw Beksinski painting "Trumpet Horn Player."
yeah, one of the reviewers said it was Geiger esque... I said no way, this is 100% beshkinski inspired
I agree, love his artwork!
Ken Barthelmey, the Creature Designer for the movie, said in his artstation page that the director asked him for something inspired both by Beksinski and Giger
Oh for sure. That’s so awesome, great painting.
I just finished watching the movie... Holy algorithm, I really needed this
A goddamn masterpiece of cult horror films
The creature was the outer god Nyarlathotep, they changed his name at the camp fire and the end and reality itself shattered at his name, for he can travel between the spheres and is the messenger of Azathoth!
1. James' surname, Lasombra, actually means "the shadow" in Spanish.
2. Pontifex means "bridge maker".
3. One of the folders in Camp Elsewhere is named "Quail/A" (Amanda Quail) which may also pertain to the concept of qualia - a term use to describe the nature or content of our subjective experiences.
Disney killed this movie, basically. I'm glad it's getting some notoriety.
Yeah many have said this movie was extremely mismarketed and was thrown out to the wolves. Now people are calling it one of the greatest horror films in this decade
@@Macabre124 we're not exactly deep into this decade to be saying that just yet, but I agree that it's going to be well regarded as a creepy and well-made film and that it's one of the best horror films made in the last few years.
@@Tyler_W i agree with you. I'm a movie head. I've watched thousands of movies. I'm unemployed for years and not married plus i have no life for nearly my entire life so I've watcjed a lot of movies including from othercountries and this film definitely is a masterclass and visceral in filmography
This falls under what I call Esoteric Horror, similar to Jacob’s Ladder and The Ninth Gate.
The Ninth Gate is a great comparison
I wouldn't say the plot twist was unique given that its taken straight from lovecraft - the detective investigating a cult who ends up being the one to bring the terrifying force into the world
Huh? But he doesn't bring it into the world....he wasn't a real human to begin with.....so nope not some Loveceaft story 🙄 so what story exactly is this copying?
I bet you've read 2 or less of his stories but yet are acting like you're some expert. 😂🙄🤮
you didnt notice but when he get into potiflex institute there is a painting on was with that cabin in buthan where they hide from blizard.
You got things backwards. People who are positive are positive because life and circumstances give them a reason to be positive, and vice versa. No one chooses to be negative for no reason. Their negativity REFLECTS their reality, it doesn't create it. Think about it. New Agers often tend to have things backwards. Negative thoughts REFLECT a negative reality. Thinking positive doesn't do anything if your circumstances don't reflect it. Think about it. This is obvious.
Case in point: If you fear that you are about to get fired at your job, it's not because you are thinking negative and causing your boss to fire you. No. It's because you aren't a good fit for your employer or company and your managers are already thinking of firing you, or they have to lay off people and you are on the list, so you sense it in the ether telepathically and you sense it coming like a premonition. Hence your thoughts REFLECT the reality that's coming, like a premonition, it does NOT create it out of thin air. We've all experienced this or something similar before. We are not all powerful. That's an obvious delusion.
How did Paul get from Bhutan to Missouri?.
Great job on your CHANNEL and the video!
You always do a wonderful job in narrating your topic as well!
KEEP UP YOUR GREAT WORK and to everyone....
HAVE A GOOD DAY-👍👍👍
This is so detailed ty!
Sounds like a Stand that failed to manifest properly, they did not have the Will for it .
well done analysis sir! enjoyable watch.
This was some twisted, elaborate tale to tell on the big screen. I got some True Detective vibes from this video what with the Yellow King and all.
Yellow King? Haha no....this is definitely Nyarlathotep at work
Thanks for the upload! Amazing content as always! 💖💖💖
This film restored my faith in big budget film making. It almost seems like a big mistake - no one puts this much $$$ into a film thats actually good, scary and intelligent!
This movie and In The Mouth Of Madness have alot of parallels
Both Lovecraft-based/inspired. That is why.
Annihilation is another incredible cosmic horror movie to check out. It’s very similar to the Lovecraft work “The Color Out of Space” and it has way higher quality/production value than both Empty Man and Mouth of Madness.
just watch this movie because my friend recommend it;
I think 'Empty Man' is not the skeletal figure or the shadow that we see haunting the characters.
The skeletal figure is an Ancient Being, A spirit, A Mind invading Conscience that NEED an 'EMPTY MAN' as a VESSEL to live on. ( if its empty, its easy to get inside it, get it? EMPTY-MAn for an ancient spirit to possessed)
Remember they say; ' It's easier to penetrate someone who knows Pain, regret, or tragedy. "
we know that GREG in the first act has something BAD going on and tried to kill himself many times before.
PAUL also has something in common, make him an easy target for the EXPERIMENT.
WHich bring us to the video in the cabin. the experiment and all the ritual of blowing bottle they did. well I think, they did calling The ancient being / TULPA, first they believe that TULPA is coming to them through vision or dream, with time, concentration, and repetition it could all be real. BUT NOT ALL THE VESSELS ARE COMPATIBLE!!
- That's why the man in the video went all Exorcist MAd
- that's why some people who tried summoning the TULPA died... They just can't handle the mind invader and went crazy and eventually kill themselves. (The writing on the bridge, 'the empty man made me do it' is actually referring to GREG that was still the Empty Man when the teenagers died, so as GREG/ The Empty Man sees them unfit, he simply erase them.)
ANd So we come to the last arc, where we got a question; is Paul real? is he fabricated? does AMANDA even real!? this has a lot of possibility:
- We showed that The Pontifex has folders full of Paul's Bio. (could be planted, or could be a proof that Paul is really being experimented)
- Amanda's mom didn't know Paul, AManda didn't appear in the last scene, his house is EMPTY, a naked picture of him in the basement (all solid proofs for me that Paul's past was fabricated!)
- As paul become overwhelmed by all these information, the TULPA used this chance to possessed Paul and finally got a new and healthy body for himself.
some great point; Paul said he's from san fransisco many times, but as he said it over and over again, It loses its meaning and got me thinking 'so what!?', just like the movie said that if you say something too much, it'll become gibberish and loses its meaning.
Its the Madness of the outer god Nyarlathotep the traveller between the spheres of realities
Yay! More Lovecraftian horror!
The creature at the end is the outer God Nyarlathotep, the cultists chanted his mighty Name at the campfire , listen close
@@cthulhu472 yes! Finally someone else who noticed that at the fire scene!
First i think ' give or take lag" great movie love the video's 🖒🍻
My theory is Jason vorhess is a talpa/ evil manifestation
You can honestly say that about a lot of iconic slasher villains except for maybe a few, Jason, Freddy Krueger and maybe even Michael Myers for sure.
I honestly had no desire to see this at first. I've now watched it 3 times
dude I threw this away so many times. I hate horror films because they are all the same. But when i accidentally watched this by chance, my goodness, i'm already watching it 3 times and writing notes from it
I think I've finally been convinced. I left horror films a long time ago. I do enjoy a good psychological thriller and I do wonder if the people who promote this haven't mislabeled it to a point?
@@saintejeannedarc9460 it was just mishandled in general
Did you realize the being is Nyarlathotep? LA LA NYARLATHOTEP!
Do you people not realize the spirit is the outer god Nyarlathotep, they chanted his name around the fire and the space time continuum stopped yet it didn't stop it speed up but also slowed down, for the tulpa knew reality was shattered at this point but wasent sure , Nyarlathotep has take Vessels in over 1000 forms
Yes, mighty Cthulhu. Nyarlathotep has risen!
Oh shut up and go back to sleep. I'll call you when the stars are actually right, mmkay?
I’ve actually read a lot of personal accounts of people who get into law of attraction shit and this movie is barely an exaggeration. Stay clear if you value your sanity and soul.
Can you explain more
Parsons? This wouldn't be a reference to The Babylon Working with Jack Parsons, pre Scientology L.Ron Hubbard and Parsons wife? Groovier times man, groovier times....
For sure, the writers did their research
Anyone see that x files with the Band Aid Nose Man, who defends homeless people by ripping their oppressors limb from limb? Great tulpa
Why does Aaron Pool looks like Aaron Paul? That's the real mindfuck of this movie.
I started wondering if I was going insane because of that one detail
I didn't really care for this movie tbh. And the plot twist wasn't worth sitting through the run time. There were scenes that I liked, but overall this movie is a nah from me.
The empty man made me do it
14:46 22:08 *VHS. This movie was great and terribly underrated.
This is one of the most incoherently reaching video essays I've ever listened to. No thoughts are developed to completion or backed up by anything. Also, Nietchze coined the term nihilism but was not a nihilist nor was he a proponent or advocate of nihilism. He saw nihilism as one of the two conclusions our society will arrive at after realizing God is dead. The other of the two was übermansch which is what he did advocate.
Can you guys review The Collector and The Collection
Now THAT is an underrated movie!
...You wouldn't know another one like it, hmm? I ran out of stuff to watch.
Positivity and negativity are just moral man made illusions, thinking happy doesn't make your life better, its your actions that change outcomes not thoughts
I’m still confused as to what the skeleton thing with the giant hands embedded into the wall was ?!? How did it get there? Why didn’t it come back into reality since an entire cult was manifesting its existence?!! I am confused
Theory: The skeleton was the previous vessel before Paul and James. After being possessed by the In-between-one, that person's body eventually died and decayed while meditating in the mountains of Bhutan. During their time as a "transmitter" (having their body inhabited by a cosmic deity), the person's bones were mutated into an otherworldly monster that imbedded itself in the cave walls. The bones grew outwards in every direction like tendrils of a lovecraftian monster, searching for anguished minds to corrupt and control. The messages were eventually received when Paul heard the whistling sound while hiking in the mountains.
This is such an underrated movie
5:05 but it clearly show it's HER STABBING HERSELF.....in a clip a bit later....soooo nothing was stabbing her. Something COMPELLED her but.....
I would say that David Prior is far more critical of these philosophies, postmodernism, nihilism, social constructivism, Buddhism and so on. I think the film is more a critique of the philosophical ideas than an embrace of them. I mean, there’s definitely something very evil and scary about The Empty Man and the cult that worships him.
my residual bewilderment might be an easy answer but lies in this simple question:
what is the PURPOSE of the cult?
though the answer seems to be purely psychological and an act of "learning," then what is the purpose of the entity "killing" everyone it interacts with, except for the tulpa?
Excellent!
I saw it and it was a pretty good storyline but I don't think the characters were strong enough to carry it all. I don't think it was the actors , I think it was on the writer to write stronger characters that this plot needs.
Is Aron Poole the discount version of Aaron Paul?
Good video, but I _think_ you meant VHS tapes
I thought that James being the 14th manifestation might be an attempt, from the Pontifex, to mirror tibetan Buddhism. The actual Dalaï Lama being the 14th.
Best hike ever.
Couple serious errors, inserting postmodernism into your speech at 16:00 is biased and misleading.
Everything is not just a social construct. There are static and unmovable elements from everything like a toaster down to subatomic particles. There are biological facts that are not up for debate. The reason this movie is so scary is because the real villain is not the comatose Empty Man, or the spirit of the evil being, it is the humans that spend their time and money helping him, lying to innocent people, spreading the chaos, and serving the thing dwelling in the body of the person.
Ultimately, the message is that there is no limit to what some type of people will do to be granted real power. It has nothing to do with 'am I a construct? '
Also you forgot to mention that the whole goal of enlightenment in Buddhism is to disconnect completely from the feelings and desires of mortality. This means that it's possible that Buddhism itself might have been started by people who were in contact with the corpse that they found in the crevasse.
This means that the being may be spreading an ancient form of enlightenment within the cult.
Buddhism was established by Siddhartha Gautama in India. It's got nothing to do with seeing skeletons in some cave in Bhutan. Gautama was meditating and developed the philosophy. The Cult in the movie is not interested in power. They were nihilists, they didn't believe in reality, and by extension they didn't believe in power, or no power. Neither exists. It's all one and the same, nothing exists, nothing matters, nothing has value, there is no meaning in life or death, existence or nonexistence, in the order of the cosmos, nothing apart from the Other in the Noosphere, and they believe in this fanatically. The message, therefore, is that there is no limit to what fanatics will do to see their perspective of the world proven right.
The principle problem I can see with this movie is that the fact that the main character's last name is Lasombra kind of gives away the reveal, and then it's just two hours of waiting for them to get there.
In all fairness, most ppl don't even know this word.
@@otisbob2375 Except everyone who has ever played or read Vampire: The Masquerade, or knows Spanish, Latin, or other close Romance language.
@@otisbob2375 i did not know the word
I'm a native spanish speaker and in retrospect it's very obvious, but I didn't made the connection even though from the start I thought "man, what a funny last name". Maybe I'm just too much of a dumbass, but it was nice not knowing haha
Lasombra means shadow, how does that give away the twist before you actually know it? In hindsight it makes sense but I can't see anyone figuring anything out on that alone. Could even just be a thematic detail
hold up, did you just call those VHS tapes VFX tapes? what? do you also say bollyball instead of volleyball? or bagina? LOL rumbrella
Hehe - I look into the Abyss and it looks back into me. Let's see who will blink first :-)
FANTASTIC VIDEO AWESOME
Did A “James” ever exist? Cause inspiration for the tulpa has to come from an actual person, right?
Omg 😱 when he says the empty man made me do it. It’s so creepy 🤦🏽♂️
NYARLATHOTEP MADE ME DO IT
2:22 How did that Skeleton get down there?.
Again Marvelous Videos throws around Lovecraft's name to get hits.
If you didn't hear the cultists chanting Nyarlathotep at the fire in the movie , this is the mighty outer god, traveler between many spheres of realities and messenger of the great dream of Azathoth, for if he shall awaken all will cease to be, the chaos of his infinite dark abysmal gate is vast and endless, the Daemon Sultan is all that is real and made all that is not real by just a thought
Aaron Poole? Why do all these Lovecraftesque movies always show some triangle imagery symbolism as it relates to some cult.........😕
Nyarlathotep being chanted at the campire, listen close mortal
Anyone whos read the comic that it's based on this movie is just an insult to it
Spoilers....
I would love a sequel in which it explores if there is a struggle within Lasombra fake identity against The Empty Man. It could explore the imperfect tulpa, as it was made my humans afterall, with the fake personality remerging and maybe The Empty Man struggling with another entity looking for a viable host.
The Empty man is Nyarlathotep
*So what’s the word on this film? It’s been out for a few years now, so I am curious, is it a good horror film? The whole summoning of a spirit by blowing into a bottle seems ridiculous to me. They could have come up with a better way to summon this thing. On top of that I still think there is the possibility of it being a good film. So what’s everyone’s review on this film? Give me a rating out of 10 please and a BRIEF explanation as to why your rating is correct.*
8/10 for me, the trailer is highly misleading. It's a high concept cosmic horror with some top shelf cinematography and sound design to create an atmosphere of existential dread.
1 out of 10
Didn't like it at all. You will NOT see any horror in this movie. It is nonsense with a HUGE plothole. Weak story, segmented, lingering from one direction to another. You can catch "the big twist" in the middle of the movie. The only thing I don't "get" about this movie is why so many people like it.
look at the comment replies. This is why its clear we are all different. To each their own. One guy rates it 8 out of 10 while the other crapped on it. Everyone different.
Bro, if you're just looking for the next piece of entertainment to chew on, perhaps consider investing in a coloring book?
@@id104335409 there was plenty of horror, the fuck movie did you watch? The camp fire? The entity in his house? The prologue?
If you can't at least admit the prologue is good then you have shit taste
Haven't heard of this. Looks pretty good.
Thanks for the review.
There is no point for you to watch it anymore, The entire impact of the storyline is completely wasted for you
Movue looks good, will buy the BR, but it does look similar to "Shutter Island"
Idk if I'd draw that comparison apart from its psychological elements that play with your head. I'd say that while it's clearly more grounded, the aesthetic in particular kinda reminded me of A Cure for Wellness.
I feel sorry for you people who are in denial.
I feel like this was a inspiration to Q
Like... I think Tulpa is a concept borrowed by some occultists in the West from pre-Buddhist Tibetan shamanist beliefs.
It is
@@Macabre124 And it is not a passive German Doppelganger who is just a harbinger to a person who sses it than he/she will die soon. Tulpa is an active s.o.b.
@@nicholassudov2299 great point. Totally agree. It's deeper than that
Literally a "cult" movie.
it's a winner !
I enjoyed the movie and it's concepts but didn't think it was great.
to each their own
@@Macabre124 of course. I was trying to get other people in my circle to watch it because it's concept was so different. No one else I know really enjoys horror movies unfortunately.
Sooo wouldn’t the empty man just burn thru this fake man? Do you know who Protius from marvel comics is?
Why wouldn’t they make tulpas with superpowers????
Guess I'm not a fan of Jacques Derrida's philosophy (or ferdinand de saussure) because I couldn't sit through this boring movie
You're wrong these are called demons
The way you say the empty man made me do it becomes just obnoxious
Everything is subjective
Is it solipsistic in here, or is it just me?
that's a deep concept. Too abstract to even address that here on youtube
I see what you did there johnny
Ótimo filme
lol Nice
Praise nyarlathotep!
It’s kinda like Candyman it’s kinda weird some people actually attamept to manifest a Tulpa I read a creepy past about it before it’s overall pretty benevolent but it’s still fuckin weird
Narration is a bit over the top.
I really hate "it was all a dream" stories
In the world of HP Lovecraft and this movie definitely being about the cult worshipping Nyarlathotep, the mighty outer god and messenger of the sleeping creator Azathoth, all realities are a dream in the mind of Azathoth
MBC3
man this movie was dogshit
Repetition, like how religious extremists constantly preach about heaven and hell to the point where in their head its a reality? Even if no of it is true, instresting
I cannot believe how many people like this movie. It literally made my head hurt and there was absolutely no need for it to be 137 minutes long.
That's exactly why so many people actually love the movie. We like psychological thrillers that don't spoon feed us and draw out the suspense, to the breaking point and then beyond, and leave us not knowing for sure where we stand. The latter part esp. invites future watches. Too many movies are a droll, spoon fed pile of fluff, that you can barely see once.
The human's mind is a complex chains of process, the more you think about things around the world, the more you curious for them, more thoughts more thrill more... excitement
Didn’t like it garbage!!!! 0:24
Did not like that movie at all. But many people do, so you might just want to try it for yourself.
I think it was hot garbage.
yeah some people find Fast and furious one of the Top greates films of the decades .everyone different
This movie sucked and the twist was obvious within the first hour.
Clearly you do not realize the great put God Nyarlathotep was in this film, the cult chants it, do you know not of the dream of Azathoth